The invention relates to a belt buckle of a seat belt.
A belt buckle is part of a safety means in a vehicle and is tightly connected to the body of the vehicle. A locking tongue at which webbing is provided which partly surrounds a vehicle occupant when the locking tongue is inserted so as to fix said occupant on the vehicle seat in the case of strong deceleration of the vehicle may be inserted into the belt buckle.
Belt buckles including illumination systems are generally known from prior art, the illumination serving for marking a receiving area for the locking tongue so that the vehicle occupant is able to find the belt buckle more quickly. Quickly finding the belt buckle increases the buckling rate, as the vehicle occupant need not search for the belt buckle which might reduce the motivation to buckle up. The illumination devices are intended to safeguard reliable and permanent illumination of the receiving area.
The belt buckles known from prior art usually include a belt buckle casing which typically has been manufactured by a welding method adhesively connecting two casing halves. Due to said adhesive connection, the illumination system can be replaced with considerably effort only, which is perceived as a drawback. Moreover, the constructed space inside the belt buckle is restricted; therefore a very compact design of the illumination system is required. In addition, the receiving area is to be illuminated extensively and with high light intensity so that the vehicle occupant is able to find the receiving area even in the case of inconvenient positions of the belt buckle. Previous belt buckles have not met these requirements to the complete satisfaction.